I don't do any "canning" myself Pam. Pickled Japs and Serranos and carrots get put in old gallon pickle jars and in the fridge. Same thing goes for my pickled cukes and zucchini -- Mrs. Wage's fridge packs and in the fridge. Yep. I believe a ton of flavor is coaxed by roasting. The japs don't get skinned, just roasted. Regarding the dried chiles and reconstituting. it's quicker than grinding or crushing. And biting into a hunk/piece of dried chile is less than desirable. Look at a bottle of chile powder --- it's ground fine. Not only that, but dried lleathery anchos and guajillos are raisin textured... you can't grind them to a powder. No problem about your inquiry about reconstituting. I know you're reluctant ...LOL I'll convert you sooner or later :P Try it this way once. you'll see the difference. ;) Actually, I use a lot of cumin also. But, like cinnamon, a little really does go a long way. And, too much and you just screwed up the whole dish and there's nothing one can do to fix it. JMO My chili is done...just letting it sit for a couple hours. The next couple days are when it will be REAL good. Kinda like spaghetti sauce. Kevin

Wow that looks as good as my harvest this week. I plan to do the same of both sauce and chile powder. Good luck with all those chiles.

I made some teriyaki sauce and simmered it with some 7-pot peppers in it and then I canned it in pint jars with a pepper in each jar. I also like to make a sauce with pineapple, kiwi, mango, coriander, cinnamon, and about 10 super hots (I have used ghost peppers and 7-pots). I also smoked some apples and onions and a basket full of peppers similar to the picture above and added brown sugar, molasses, vinegar, and a few spices. This made a very good and smokey sauce...makes everything taste like it came right off the grill.

Well so far I have pulled at least 400 cherry peepe and about the same number of jalapeños. I have dehydrated and pickled most of them in a sweet vinegar solution (vinegar,sugar, fresh bay leaf from my tree, peppercorns, oregano from the garden and of course, garlic. Have almost enough to last the winter( guests eat too much)... Did the same with jalapeños, only sliced em up (mostly red and hot), but some bottles of red and green for the holidays. Cayenne, just pickled and will get to cook with or serve with some cheese over the winter. I'm about 75pct harvested and have lots more to go!!! Want to try my hand at slow smoking some ripe Jalapeños to get chipotles.... Just a bit intimidated. Also want to tell making some hot sauce... Need to research a good recipe... Of course saving all seeds for next years crop!! What do you do with yours? Rich D